RUI: Catalytic Aerogel Materials

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NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Existing catalytic converter systems use rare precious metals to catalyze exhaust gas. Decreasing the use of these metals has the potential to transform automotive pollution clean-up methods. This has important economic implications for the nation because a typical automobile catalytic converter contains about $100 of precious metals, adding about 700 million dollars per year to the total cost of cars sold in the US. Moreover, it has major environmental and geopolitical implications; mining of precious metals is environmentally damaging, and many of the best sources are outside of the US. Aerogels are lightweight, nano-porous materials with lots of surface area and good thermal properties. Catalytic aerogel materials have the potential to replace the precious metals while being both cost-effective and environmentally friendlier than current automotive catalysts. This project funds an interdisciplinary team of faculty and undergraduate students in Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry at Union College who are undertaking fundamental studies of catalytic aerogel materials and demonstrating the utility of these materials as catalysts to alleviate automotive pollution. TECHNICAL DETAILS: Catalytically active aerogels have the potential to transform automotive pollution mitigation technologies by eliminating the use of rare precious metals in internal combustion engine exhaust after-treatment applications. Aerogels' unique physical properties, including high surface area, low density and good thermal stability, offer significant advantages for use as automotive catalysts. Union College researchers have developed a novel rapid supercritical extraction (RSCE) process for fabricating aerogels. This process offers significant potential advantages for cost effectively preparing catalytic aerogel materials, and for casting them in forms suited to practical applications in automotive catalysis. In this project the interdisciplinary Union College team is undertaking a systematic and iterative series of experiments to prepare, test and optimize catalytically active aerogel materials for eventual applications in automotive pollution mitigation. Specifically, the team is: (1) developing a fundamental understanding of the effect of aerogel precursor chemistry and processing conditions on the bulk physical properties of catalytic aerogel materials prepared via their RSCE process, (2) extending knowledge of the performance of catalytic aerogel materials through strength testing and measurements of the thermal stability, flow-through characteristics, hydrophobicity and catalytic ability of the catalytic aerogel materials, and (3) demonstrating that RSCE catalytic aerogel materials can be fabricated into forms rugged and robust enough for ultimate application as three-way automotive catalysts under realistic service conditions. This project provides undergraduate students from Union's Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry Departments with exciting and relevant cross-disciplinary research experiences, which encourages them to consider graduate studies and careers in research and, therefore, impacts positively the US scientific infrastructure.